Salary Caps: Needed?

Gwladys St. Glory · February 4, 2018

So, for the longest time I've been under the impression that life was all about equality and the greater good in England? But some things don't add up, y'see. So I've created a thread for you all to discuss and rationalise why your national sport is ruled by money, greed, the embracing of capitalist tendencies and your seeming willingness to tolerate it.

Why has the scourge of the world, money-hungry America, adopted this system but yet you're still in the stone age when it comes to equality and fair play in sport? Is it because both systems are flawed, so we employ the opposite in our leisure activities to help quell the inevitable public discontent that they create?

What's the perfect system? Should we adopt a gladiator mentality where a loss results in a squad members death after they've been singled out for blame by official Twitter poll? Why are we here? Are aliens watching us? Discuss.

TippEverton · February 4, 2018

Sadly, a mute point, too late.

'Sorry Mr.Neymar we're tearing up that 700k p/w contract you have you'll now be on 100k from here on'.

Goat · February 4, 2018

Gwladys St. Glory said:
So, for the longest time I've been under the impression that life was all about equality and the greater good in England? But some things don't add up, y'see. So I've created a thread for you all to discuss and rationalise why your national sport is ruled by money, greed, the embracing of capitalist tendencies and your seeming willingness to tolerate it.

Why has the scourge of the world, money-hungry America, adopted this system but yet you're still in the stone age when it comes to equality and fair play in sport? Is it because both systems are flawed, so we employ the opposite in our leisure activities to help quell the inevitable public discontent that they create?

What's the perfect system? Should we adopt a gladiator mentality where a loss results in a squad members death after they've been singled out for blame by official Twitter poll? Why are we here? Are aliens watching us? Discuss.

Which sports in Murica have a salary cap?

And besides, we have FFP and STCC here, its clear how successful they are....

TheBigIguana · February 4, 2018

MoutsGoat said:
Which sports in Murica have a salary cap?

And besides, we have FFP and STCC here, its clear how successful they are....

Everyone but baseball basically has some form of salary cap. NFL is a hard limit while NBA has a bunch of penalties and workarounds but no one can spend unlimited amounts except in baseball. That said I don't really see it working for football as the club system is far different from having franchises under a single banner

ilikecheese · February 4, 2018

Salary cap, no.

Squad limit cap, yes.

There is no reason a club should be allowed to have 70 players with a professional contract.

Khalekan · February 4, 2018

Simple answer......not just YES, but hell YES.

Will it ever happen.

Not on yer Nelly.

Thank you, Jimmy Hill.

ilikecheese · February 4, 2018

Chelsea have 37 or 38 players out on loan.

toffeejack · February 4, 2018

should definitely be brought in. or just pay brackets and every team can only have so many in such bracket i.e. only 3 players in the 100k-150k a week bracket. I know people moan about all the revenue successful players bring into clubs, but that can just go towards stupid transfer fees to keep the big clubs happy. the quality of the football on show decreases every season and the lack of hardwork is going out of the window too. Players have too much power now and as we're seeing again at everton you've got asquad who really cba putting their bodies on the line. Because, why should they? They're still going to get their 80k a week. doesn't matter if they try or not, doesn't matter if they get picked for the whole season, they'll still get that wage, all they have to do is just turn up for training. Just look at jack rodwell as an example, seems like he refused to leave despite his employer not wanting nor being able to afford him.

If football brought in a wage limit structure where players could earn much more through bonuses based on achievements then i'd be much more content. Ever since they brought in FFP, fees and wages have become utterly stupid.

deipnosophist · February 4, 2018

Football is the working man's game. Why should there be a salary cap?

arch stanton · February 4, 2018

I don't like salary caps but I'm all for a much much lower basic and bigger win bonuses, they may look like they care then.

Rook · February 4, 2018

MoutsGoat said:
Which sports in Murica have a salary cap?

And besides, we have FFP and STCC here, its clear how successful they are....

Baseball doesn't but the rest do.

NFL - hard cap. I think its around 160M, there is also a salary floor meaning you have to spend a certain amount of money.
NHL - hard cap, I think they have a salary floor.
Baseball - no salary cap, but if you go over a certain payroll you have to pay a luxury tax. Salaries are also depressed for players in the league for less than 5-6? years. A tax which gets funneled to smaller clubs.
NBA - soft cap w/ very stiff luxury tax and max salaries - you can spend as much as you want but you can't trade for or sign players if you are over the cap. The team that drafted you, or you are currently playing for can offer you a higher max salary. NBA has a salary floor.
MLS - hard cap except for DPs.

Only baseball really has the have/have nots. The Yankees/Dodgers/Red Sox have the local TV contracts which allow them to spend hundreds of millons. Plus w/o a salary floor it incentivises losing for the smaller clubs. Many smaller clubs (OH HAI PIRATES!) gut their clubs and pay a large majority of their salaries with revenue sharing so even if no one shows up they are still highly profitable.

Also most sports clubs here play in taxpayer funded stadiums and pay no tax or rent whatsoever. In many of these deals the club owns the stadium and the parking lots but the city is also on the hook for millions of improvements to said stadiums.

Rook · February 4, 2018

I personally don't think a salary cap is needed for the prem/football in general, might be too hard to implement w/ so many countries playing the game. What football needs is roster caps for players (say 25?) over the age of 18 and loans need to be severely restricted to around 3/year.

The binman chronicles · February 4, 2018

toffeejack said:
should definitely be brought in. or just pay brackets and every team can only have so many in such bracket i.e. only 3 players in the 100k-150k a week bracket.

Totally agree with this, it would ensure the stars are shared around among as many clubs as possible. Perhaps have 1 player at 300k, 1 at 200k, 3 at 150k and the rest 100k or lower. It would still favour the big clubs as players more likely to take cheaper wages to play at them and they can afford the rest of the squad to be at 100k. It would just give other clubs hope that they could compete and get to see a world class player play for them.

Gwladys St. Glory · February 4, 2018

I thought there'd be a lot more discussion on this, TBH...I think some form of it needs to come in. One of the great things about football is the relegation system but it's damn near pointless when you have massive wage discrepancies between clubs and youth systems are victims of it as well. The stockpiling of players is a joke, it fuels a mercenary mentality and harms league competition (here's looking at you, Spain).

Are you all seriously happy with how football's going because the future looks pretty lame, to me. I want all these so-called great managers to prove their worth on a level playing field because it's far from that. FFP is a joke and you almost wonder if football clubs are becoming a money laundering venture.

For all intents and purposes I should be keeping quiet about this as we now have money to spend and, in the past, a lot of our success was based around having a large wedge to play with but I don't see the current/future situation improving football as a whole.